<p>@Maryjay60 I don’t know if this is too late, but I used Shutterfly’s free templates to make an invitation, downloaded the file, and converted the pdf to a jpg with Preview. (This is a free program on Macs, but I’m sure PCs would have something similar.) Then I sent the jpg to Sam’s Club and printed them out for 0.13 apiece. We were very happy with them 
.</p>
<p>A post on another thread reminded me of a lesson I learned regarding health care. Kids don’t think to ask whether a particular health service/test is covered by their insurance and what the cost will be. And the cost to each person varies so much depending on insurance coverage that physicians rarely discuss costs. But if your child is 18 or older, and the doctor suggests a test and the kid says “OK” you may be in for an unpleasant surprise. </p>
<p>After one such mistake, D and I discussed how the insurance works and what questions to ask. I was glad when she called me the other day from the doctor’s office to ask permission before getting a vaccine booster not covered by our insurance. She needed the vaccine, but at least I’m prepared for the bill. </p>
<p>Y’all are making me anxious about the dorm shopping - I’m feeling really behind again! </p>
<p>@Momzie - thanks for the tip on shopping to the school. I didn’t know that option was available.</p>
<p>@onlyonemom that would be funny if they turn out to be roommates 
I wonder how long it would take us to figure that out :D</p>
<p>
Depends on the school to some extent. Some schools will only allow you to ship stuff X number of days/weeks before your arrival (and you may not even know your dorm let alone room number yet) and you may have trouble getting your hands on it on move-in day.</p>
<p>Anyone else have a kid recovering from wisdom teeth surgery at the moment? Totally forgot that might be in the cards for this summer. Kind of nice to take care of her for a day or two.</p>
<p>@ovrseasmom We also bought a mini fridge on Craigslist. I’d been hoping a roommate might have one, but it’s looking likely D’s roommate will be international and traveling alone to school, so it seemed doubtful she’d be bringing or buying one! I think we paid $35. The backup plan was a scratch-and-dent model from eBay; I think that was going to be about $75 shipped. I’m really glad I found the Craigslist one, though!</p>
<p>lab317- D’s orthodontist wanted her to get her wisdom teeth out this summer, but with all the stuff going on before starting school I couldn’t bring myself to do it (she’s really scared of medical stuff, and anxious about school, so it seemed like a bad combination). Maybe spring break will work. How did it go for your daughter?</p>
<p>Is anyone taking a computer chair to college for their kid? D does a lot of work at her desk and she wants to take one along. It seems like a pain to lug back and forth, and then what do you do with the wood chair in the dorm? I do want her to be comfortable though.</p>
<p>My DD had her wisdom teeth out yesterday. She was totally cranky yesterday, but then calmed down after her first dose of paid meds. There was hardly any swelling yesterday, but today she is quite swollen. I hear day #3 is the worse, so I’m not looking forward to that. She is happy to be eating pasta today (although she has to cut it up into little pieces). Can’t wait until all the healing is over and back to normal. Had to switch from cold to heat packs today, and also rinsing. She’s not good about any of this and has to be told when to do it. Still a little cranky so we’ve given her the living room! Hope the healing goes well, and hope it is quick!</p>
<p>When my D went in for a dental surgery in her freshman year of HS (having a chain attached to a tooth still up in her gums so that it could be attached to her braces & pull the tooth down into place), we walked in that morning & the surgeon said, why don’t we take her wisdom teeth out while we’re at it? We almost said no, it just seemed too much at once, but now I’m so glad that’s over. She was pretty out of it the first two days and quite swollen for 3-4 days. Luckily, this was right after she finished doing the school musical - that would not have been a happy combination. I think we’ll try to get D2 taken care of before senior year, if the dentist gives the OK.</p>
<p>S is getting his wisdom teeth removed the week after he returns from orientation- which is next week.</p>
<p>The wooden chair in dorm room will have to suffice for S- not bringing a computer chair. </p>
<p>S took himself to Dr today for a sore elbow- it has wrecked his plans to build muscle this summer. He navigated making the appointment, seeing the doctor and going to pharmacy all on his own. Good job kiddo!</p>
<p>Older D had some cushions for the dorm desk chair. I had forgotten about that - will add it to the list for younger D.</p>
<p>Adding our move-in date (to the end of the list!):</p>
<p>MOVE-IN DATES</p>
<p>8/01 Calla1’s S – UCSB
8/08 Beadymom’s S — UAlabama (early move-in Honors program)
8/08 Maryjay60’s S — UAlabama (early move-in Honors program)
8/09 Eyemamom’s D — Auburn
8/13 Classof2015’s S — College of Charleston
8/12 2014 Novamom’s S – Case Western (early move in for varsity sport)
8/13 Momreads’s S – U. of Alabama in Huntsville (early move in for varsity sport)
8/15 Gertrude McFuzz’s D — Temple
8/15 Onlyonemom’s S — UVM - Honors college (Trek program - actually move in August 22)
8/16 lab317’s D – Willamette University (early move-in outdoor program- actual 8/21)
8/16 4beardolls’s S – Vanderbilt
8/16 jrmama496’s S — Vanderbilt
8/16 yellowgranite56’s D — Vanderbilt
8/17 austinareadad’s S – Rice
8/17 Ordinarylives’s D – Simpson College
8/18 Dave_N’s S – University of Pittsburgh
8/19 1dilecon’s D — Pepperdine University
8/19 12dandelion’s D – Rochester Institute of Technology
8/19 AvonHSDad’s D - Villanova
8/20 Cakeisgreat’s D – Quinnipiac honors
8/20 Momfromme’s S - Columbia (before outdoor trip)
8/21 Ovrseasmom’s S – University of Pennsylvania
8/21 Vandyeyes – Tulane
8/21 RenaissanceMom’s S – Tufts (public service pre-orientation program; orientation begins on 8/27)
8/22 2018dad’s D — Cornell
8/22 CT1417’s S – Cornell
8/22 mdcmom’s D – Cornell
8/22 mathmomvt’s S – UVM - Honors college
8/22 tperry1982 D – Yale
8/23 Overtheedge’s D — Sewanee
8/23 AsleepattheWheel’s S – Emory (outdoor trip for three days starting 8/19 – then we move him in)
8/25 My2sonsfromca’s S — Emerson
8/27 staceyneil’s D — Mount Holyoke
8/28 BarnardMom’s S — UMichigan
8/29 Bisouu’s D — Drew University
8/29 smakl70’s S - Rose-Hulman Institute of Tech.
8/30 akmom124’s D — Brown
8/31 Sweetbeet’s S – University of Denver</p>
<p>You all are SO far ahead of us! Partly because we will be flying to Denver, and buying most stuff there because it’s so much cheaper (and more stores!) than here on Kauai, but we haven’t really started thinking about making lists, packing, etc. We’re just getting used to it being summer! But we have company coming in a week, and once they’re gone, the launching of S will take center stage.</p>
<p>S just found out his dorm assignment (the suites, with kitchen - yea!) and roommate assignment (seems like a good match, from what we can see on social media, but they haven’t made contact yet) today. S is kind of upset about something at work, so really doesn’t want to talk or think about college right now. I think there may be some trepidation as it all becomes more “real”. Nice to read on here that many seem to “not want to talk about it” or deal with it, at least during some period. I think he’ll relax once the weekend arrives.</p>
<p>So now that we know that he’ll have a kitchen, I’m wondering if he should change from the “unlimited” meal plan to a more limited one, to save some $$. Will have to talk to him about it. I think it’s not too late. One thing about the unlimited plan, though, is that there are several dining facilities that serve different things, so he can go to one and if he doesn’t like much pn the menu there, can go to another and eat there, without penalty. On the “x meals” plan, once you swipe in, it counts as a meal. So maybe it’s better for the first year (or first term, maybe it’s on a term-by-term basis, I have to check) to just stick with the unlimited. (We mainly went for the suite-with-kitchen in case he has to stay over a break, thought that would be easier for him since the dining halls close over breaks, but now I’m thinking that he will probably want to eat breakfast in his suite.)</p>
<p>I’m glad someone mentioned a computer chair, I hadn’t thought of that but he LIVES in his computer chair, so of course he’ll have to get something other than a wooden chair. One more thing to add to the shopping list. I have been trying to pick up gift cards (WalMart, Target, BB&B) at a discount, figuring that will help a bit - since they have no idea how much you paid for the card, you can pile a discount (in buying the card) with other discounts you get from coupons, sales, etc. Anyone know any good places to get gift cards at a nice discount?</p>
<p>RIT is already on the move-in dates list so I won’t bother to add us. I feel really sorry for @calla1’s son’s Aug 1 move-in date – that’s too soon! We’re definitely not emotionally readdy for that.</p>
<p>@stacynell thanks for the tip, will definitely hope to find something, although I havent been much of a craigs list shopper before, will try to figure it out. No dorm shopping for us yet but extensive list making We will arrive at campus a week early and plan to do everything then. I hope there’s still XL sheets left in the stores by then haha.</p>
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<p>Unless your kid is a very picky eater, I can’t imagine taking the time to visit more than one facility for any one meal. I’m sure he could find out in advance what is on the menu at each place before swiping in, though IME kids will typically choose a facility based on convenience of location rather than menu in most cases. There’s usually plenty of “backup” basics to choose from if they don’t like the specials of the day.</p>
<p>What does your son usually eat for breakfast? My kids are cold cereal eaters and you can do that in the dorm room even without a kitchen if you have a mini-fridge for milk (and OJ in my DS’s case). When we’ve had the choice, we’ve always gone with 14 meals per week. Usually you save money AND get more “dining dollars” with that plan, and the kids love the dining dollars as they can use them for snacks, picking up food when they’re not near one of the all-you-care-to-eat dining halls, vending machines, and sometimes even fast food places on or near campus. </p>
<p>Hmmmm… I did check, and the cost of “unlimited meals” in the cafeterias plus $100 ‘meal plan cash’ is the same as 125 meals (per quarter, so about 12/week) plus $225 ‘meal plan cash’. The idea of going to several (well, two) different places was suggested to me by a parent of a student at the same school, who enjoys doing that sometimes. Now I just found out there is another option, called “flex cash” that can also be used to purchase meals both on and OFF campus (at many locations), as well as for other non-food items. The ‘flex cash’ can be rolled over between quarters and years, where the “meal plan cash” can’t - it expires every quarter. So I’m thinking it’s probably not wise to load up too much ‘meal plan cash’ the first quarter, until he knows a bit more about how he’s going to use it; buying some ‘flex plan cash’ (they both provide discounts from full price; the ‘meal plan cash’ discount is bigger, but it’s more limited and can’t be rolled over) is probably a better idea.</p>
<p>Why do they make this so complicated? You need a college education to figure it out! ;-)</p>
<p>If they’re only essentially giving you a $125 per quarter break by going from unlimited to 12 meals/week, I’d definitely go with unlimited for the first quarter, and I wouldn’t buy any additional cash points until he settles in and figures out what his routines are going to look like (assuming you can add flex cash and/or meal plan cash at any time). By 2nd quarter, he’ll know exactly what plan he wants. :)</p>
<p>We have just started the dorm shopping experience and I’m already finding it extremely frustrating! It’s hard to find the best deals on things; there are two things at one store, two things at the next store…Ack! It’s worse than Christmas shopping. I think we are going to have to embrace some on-line shopping and have it come to us. It doesn’t help that d is still in denial that moving day is coming up so quickly!</p>
<p>I told my son today we needed to get started and he said, rather enthusiastically, “Yes, we do!” I think it’s the first time I heard him sound at all excited at the prospect of going to college. He LOVES his checking account though…lol. </p>